computer science

Ruth Teitelbaum

Ruth Teitelbaum is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ruth Teitelbaum rather than just read about it. In short: Ruth Teitelbaum (née Lichterman; February 1, 1924 – August 9, 1986) was an American computer programmer and mathematician who was one of the first computer programmers in the world. Teitelbaum was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer.

Key takeaways

Ruth Teitelbaum belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ruth Teitelbaum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ruth Teitelbaum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ruth Teitelbaum (née Lichterman; February 1, 1924 – August 9, 1986) was an American computer programmer and mathematician who was one of the first computer programmers in the world. Teitelbaum was one of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer. The other five ENIAC programmers were Jean Bartik, Betty Holberton, Kathleen Antonelli, Marlyn Meltzer, and Frances Spence.

Early life and education Teitelbaum was born Ruth Lichterman in The Bronx, New York, on February 1, 1924. She was the elder of two children, and the only daughter, of Sarah and Simon Lichterman, a teacher. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. She graduated from Hunter College with a B.Sc. in Mathematics.

Career

Teitelbaum was hired by the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania to compute ballistics trajectories. The Moore School was funded by the US Army during the Second World War. Here, a group of about 80 women worked through complex differential calculations and manually calculated the trajectories. In June 1943, the Army decided to fund an experimental project - the first all-electronic digital computer called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). The computer was a huge machine with 40 black 8-foot panels. The programmers had to physically program it using 3000 switches, and telephone switching cords in a dozen trays, to route the data, and the program, through the machine. This is the reason why these women were called "computers". Along with Marlyn Meltzer, Teitelbaum was part of a special area of the ENIAC project to calculate ballistic trajectory equations using analog technology. They taught themselves and others certain functions of the ENIAC and helped prepare the ballistics software. In 1946, the ENIAC computer was unveiled before the public and the press. The women made a salary of $1,620 a year and were the only generation of programmers to work on the ENIAC. After the war, Teitelbaum traveled with ENIAC to the Ballistics Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground where she remained for two more years to train the next group of ENIAC programmers.

Legacy In 2010, a documentary called, "Top Secret Rosies: The Female "Computers" of WWII" was released. The film centered around in-depth interviews of three of the six women programmers, focusing on the commendable patriotic contributions they made during World War II.The ENIAC team is the inspiration behind the award-winning 2013 documentary The Computers. This documentary, created by Kathy Kleiman and the ENIAC Programmers Project, combines actual footage of the ENIAC team from the 1940s with interviews with the female team members as they reflect on their time working together on the ENIAC. It is the first documentary of a series of three, and parts two and three will be entitled The Coders and The Future-Maker, respectively.

Personal life She married Adolph Teitelbaum. The marriage license was issued on September 17, 1948.

Death Ruth Teitelbaum died in 1986 at age 62 in Dallas, Texas.

See also Kathleen Antonelli Jean Bartik Betty Holberton Frances Spence Marlyn Meltzer Timeline of women in science

References

External links

The Women of ENIAC

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ruth Teitelbaum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ruth Teitelbaum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ruth Teitelbaum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ruth Teitelbaum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ruth Teitelbaum

In research: Ruth Teitelbaum appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ruth Teitelbaum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ruth Teitelbaum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1924 births, 1986 deaths, 20th-century American Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ruth Teitelbaum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ruth Teitelbaum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ruth Teitelbaum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ruth Teitelbaum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ruth Teitelbaum in simple terms?

Why does Ruth Teitelbaum matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ruth Teitelbaum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ruth Teitelbaum.